


I'm In The Background Of Your Life Drama

by renjunsrey



Series: Time Travel Au's [2]
Category: Dramarama - Monsta X (Music Video), Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Dramarama inspired, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hyungwon deserves a fucking break, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kihyun just observes Hyungwon's skips, Kihyun's storyline was fun, M/M, Mild Angst, Minhyuk knows whats up but you don't know its him, So here we are, Someone asked me to see what it was like for the other people who didn't skip, This is a sequel to my first fic on here!, Time Travel, alligator is just in there for fun, everytime i write this universe i feel so bad for him, if you want more of this i can give you changkyun's hell ride of emotions, involuntary time travel, its only a teeny bit, there's a lot of references to dramarama and alligator, this is very cute compared to the first one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 04:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19370023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renjunsrey/pseuds/renjunsrey
Summary: Yoo Kihyun's best friend is a time traveller, he never knows when he'll arrive, or when he'll leave. Sometimes Hyungwon is a ray of sunshine in Kihyun's dull life as a shopkeeper, and other days Kihyun has to console his friend as he enters the day with a crash of emotions.He may be the background character of Hyungwon's Drama(rama), but that doesn't mean that he won't try his hardest to keep him going just as well as everyone else.





	I'm In The Background Of Your Life Drama

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends!
> 
> So I didn't plan to write a sequel to Every Moment You're Here Is A Highlight, but I watched a bunch of Dramarama theories yesterday and I'm back on my time travel bullshit~  
> I hope you enjoy this, because I heard from quite a few people that they wanted to know what goes down for the people that Hyungwon leaves behind, so I thought I would explore that from different perspectives of old scenes, and some nice and fluffy little treats in there for you!
> 
> Please let me know if you would like to see Changkyun's hell nights while Hyungwon was gone, because I definitely can deliver there, but for now, have some fluff!
> 
> Enjoy!

Kihyun grabs his small cart of fabrics, the finest coming from the other side of Korea and even as far as China for his little shop, thanking the merchants, he starts his walk to his little shop, that also serves as his home. Kihyun’s hair brushes into his eyes as the wind blows softly, walking through the light crowds still walking through the small town square, a little walk away from the business district, weaving through the people before reaching the alleyway that led down to the back entrance of the shops on his street.

With the light breeze running down the alleyway and the warmth of the spring day meeting Kihyun’s skin, he takes his walk a little slower, navigating the wheel of his cart over the paved ground of the alleyway while enjoying the emptiness of the alleyway, where he can hear just the faint sounds of the bustling street only a building over. The ambience catches Kihyun out in what must of caused a lapse of concentration, enough to make Kihyun miss the appearance of a lanky boy who hits Kihyun’s side, making him loose grip of his car before knocking him to the ground, landing on top of him, taking him by complete surprise.

 

Surely he had been alone in the alleyway, Kihyun is sure of it, so surely the man who suddenly appeared and was currently basically trapping Kihyun on the paved ground, and making Kihyun quite aware of a graze on his hand he must have gotten when he fell, was just as confused as Kihyun was. It wasn’t completely unheard of for a stranger to appear out of nowhere and become the most important coming of your life, so maybe this was just Kihyun’s time to shine.

 

In what feels like a whole minute of Kihyun trying to wrap his head around why he was on the floor, but was probably only a few seconds, the stranger scrambles up off Kihyun, dusting the dirt off his clothes that looked too Western to be from this time, his hair a beautiful shade of pink that surely couldn’t be natural. The stranger extends his hand to Kihyun, a worried look decorating his delicate face

 

“Oh my god are you okay? I’m so sorry” Kihyun takes a second or two to realise that the stranger was apologising to him for the collision, his mind too caught up in where the stranger had come from, and what the hell he did in his past life to look this beautiful when he had just taken a tumble. Kihyun furrows his eyebrows, he hadn’t heard to stranger approach, but surely to have appeared as fast as he had with such momentum, he must have been on his was somewhere pretty fast. Accidentally ignoring the stranger’s extended hand, Kihyun pushes himself off the ground, standing in front of the stranger, before doing a little pat down of his body to see if there was any damage besides the little graze on his palm

 

“I’m okay, I think” he gives a little nod, just to emphasise that he can’t find anything too damaged on his body at this current point, besides the bruise that will probably appear on his ass later in the day, but surely the stranger had taken quite the tumble at the speed he had fallen onto Kihyun 

“Are you okay? You must have been in a rush, you really took me by surprise there?” Kihyun lets his eyes wander the tall figure in front of him, that looks relatively undamaged, but he places his hand on the taller’s arm, giving him what he hopes is a concerned smile.

 

“I’m okay, thanks, it’s not the first time today I’ve taken a tumble” the taller man laughs at his own comment, obviously thinking back to his apparently quite accident prone life, which concerned Kihyun a little, unable to ignore his concern for this stranger, who he felt maybe he wasn’t so strange to. The pink haired boy gives a quick scan of the alleyway before he looks back to Kihyun, who is still mildly confused, but more so about why he was so concerned for a stranger, than where he had come from.

 

“You were probably going somewhere when I knocked into you! Sorry!” Kihyun almost laughs as the tall boy looks a little panicked that he’s disrupted Kihyun’s day by knocking into him, rather than interrupting whatever he had been doing before they had encountered each other

“Oh is this yours?” The doll-like boy tilts his head to Kihyun, looking at the cart that luckily hadn’t fallen onto the paved alley floor, the fabric avoiding any damage that could’ve cost Kihyun too much money to think of at the current point in time, but since the stranger is offering him a hand, Kihyun gives him a quick nod, a smile decorating his features and emphasising his soft eyes.

 

“If you have nowhere to be, I would appreciate that” Kihyun smiles at the taller boy before walking over to his cart, giving it a quick once over to see again that nothing had been damaged or lost when the two had fallen over. 

“It’s just down here, I was going to stop at my shop and unload these before I go home” Kihyun gestures to the little alcove where the door to his little fabric shop could be seen, the entrance that he took nearly everyday to make sure that his family still had some income and he could keep the Yoo family business going strong. 

 

Checking that the stranger wasn’t about to make a run for it with all of the expensive fabrics, Kihyun starts to walk down the rest of the alleyway to his shop, the hand-painted wooden sign swaying in the breeze above the door, the smaller cousin to the large wooden sign above the main entrance to his little shop. Kihyun’s worries are lost in the breeze when he hears the sound of the cart just behind him, skipping over the uneven pavement, and the soft sounds of the stranger’s shoes on the stones. When they reach the store, the stranger looks down to Kihyun with a questioning look, looking around the back of the shop, before asking with a tentative voice

 

“Where do you want me to put the cart?” To avoid any damages with storing the cart, and just to speed up the process of getting everything inside his store, Kihyun pats the taller’s shoulder and takes the cart out of his hands, tucking it in the shared storage space in-between his shop and his neighbour’s. Once it’s tucked away, he grabs an armful of the fine fabrics stacked up on the cart, glad that there’s someone to help him when he realises he probably can’t carry them all by himself

 

“Can you grab some of these fabrics for me please? It’ll be a big help” Kihyun smiles at the taller boy when he smiles, giving Kihyun a nod as he walks through the door into his shop, placing the fabrics on the wooden workbench in the middle of his store, ready to be hung on some shelves a bit later in the day, probably once the traveller had left. The boy wanders through the back door, his arms full with the remaining fabrics, a look of wonder at the fabrics which Kihyun saw daily, making him chuckle a little.

 

“Just put them here, it’ll be fine” Kihyun leans against the workbench, watching as the tall boy places the fabrics down next to his own pile, delicately placing them on the wood, before giving Kihyun a smile, leaning against the bench, mirroring Kihyun’s own actions, making Kihyun laugh internally at how obviously awkward the boy was.

 

“Thanks for the help, I appreciate it” he flashes a quick smile of thanks at the pink haired boy, and to make sure that he was being completely hospitable to the boy, he makes sure to offer him some tea, glad when the boy smiles and takes a seat at one of the stools along the workbench

 

“I’d love to”

  
  


\-- --

  
  


Hyungwon and Kihyun had been chatting for the better part of 5 minutes, enjoying their tea together around Kihyun’s workbench in his little store, having just met each other, Hyungwon had introduced himself and tried to get to know Kihyun a bit better. Kihyun wasn’t overly shocked by the fact that Hyungwon had appeared from nowhere, there were stories passed down by mothers to ensure their children that the right person would come to them, even if it was from a different time. Kihyun was convinced that surely, it wasn’t all made up, not one hundred percent fiction, maybe Hyungwon had come from somewhere else to meet him. 

 

 Hyungwon pulls what looks like a brass stopwatch from his pocket, sliding a nail under the intricately carved cover, popping it open before looking at the watch face before clicking it back shut, holding it in his hands loosely, catching Kihyun’s interest. He noticed the small detailing, but wanted to see it up close, so Kihyun extends his hand, hoping for Hyungwon to hand it over

 

“What’s that Hyungwon?” Kihyun is a little shocked when Hyungwon handed the watch over just as easy as it had been to ask for it, surely he had trusted him and knew that Kihyun would be careful with the watch, or maybe it was just obvious from the extremely fine and expensive fabrics on literally every wall and shelf around the two of them. 

When the cold watch hits Kihyun’s palms, he finds himself running his thumbs over the intricately carved cover, tracing the twisting patterns of the vines and leaves decorating it.

 

“It tells me how much time I’ve got left here, before I have to go” the smile that Hyungwon gives Kihyun shows the devastation he’s seen in the past, leaving some place he wanted to stay. Kihyun turns the watch around in his hands, looking at the beautiful calligraphy on the back, with western letters that Kihyun couldn’t read, and a small date scribbled on the bottom, looking like it had been roughly scribed into the metal at some point, in a handwriting similar to Kihyun’s own. With delicate hands, Kihyun turns the watch around, tracing every detail and trying to commit it to memory, and when he’s pretty sure he could draw out the swirling pattern on the front, he hands it back to Hyungwon with a smile.

 

“It’s really cool, where did you get it?” The curiosity of the origin of the watch takes a little part of Kihyun’s brain, because he’s sure that he’d come across something similar in the past, from a traveller who had said the watch was useless.

 

“I found it poking me while I was laying down with my friend” Kihyun raises his eyebrows, a small smirk finding its way onto his face, not sure if Hyungwon had meant it quite like he had said, but maybe he had a partner that he didn’t want to tell Kihyun about.

“Not like that, we were just resting and I found it on the couch, before I skipped to a different time”

 

 Kihyun nods, waiting for more explanation, the stories of travelling across time instead of distance maybe hadn’t been too far off, so Kihyun just waits to hear exactly how it works. When Hyungwon explains how his time skipping works, sticking to the 6 other people he lives with, in his original timeline, Kihyun just nods eagerly, perking up to ask a few questions about where he’d travelled at the earliest, and if he’d gone past his own timeline yet. Kihyun stares intently while Hyungwon pops open the cover of the watch again, showing Kihyun the watch face that was slowly ticking past the 38, approaching the 60 at the top of the watch at a lazy pace, the hands of the watch almost as intricately carved as the watch cover.

 

When Hyungwon doesn’t mention the top button of the watch, or the loop that he should probably put a necklace on or something to keep it attached to his person, Kihyun’s interest is piqued, his mind running through possibilities of what the button could do, but not coming up with a definitive answer, so he lets his curiosity drive him to ask Hyungwon.

 

“Hyungwon” Kihyun hums, waiting for Hyungwon to give him some sort of response before he asks the question, when Hyungwon lets out a little affirmative noise, Kihyun continues

“What does the top button do?” Hyungwon looks up at Kihyun from the watch he had been staring at, with a look of surprise, maybe he hadn’t thought of that yet, but Kihyun was interested to see, so maybe he could convince the taller to press it for him, or even turn it.

 

“I,,, I have no idea?” Hyungwon’s voice is unsure and turns upward in tone, almost asking Kihyun if he knew what it did, Hyungwon pops open the cover again, and watches the hand click over the 40, so what harm could come of trying it out while he has so much time still here? Hyungwon stands up, leaning slightly against Kihyun’s side, towering over him, but leaving Kihyun at the perfect height to look at the detail of the watch once more.

“Let’s see what it does, shall we Kihyunnie?”

 

Hyungwon rests his finger on the button before lightly pushing it down, and when he releases the button, he’s gone, and where Hyungwon had been standing, there was a small rush of air, and nothing. Kihyun was alone once more, sitting in his shop with two empty tea cups, he lets out a chuckle before standing up and grabbing the two cups to go and clean, muttering to himself.

 

“Makes you skip, huh? A reset button, interesting.” 

 

The concept of time travel wasn’t completely unfamiliar to Kihyun before Hyungwon had nearly taken him out by falling on him, but this was a nice surprise, it was a lot easier than he had thought, but making it involuntary made it worse, so maybe the button was Hyungwon’s way to control it, they just had to learn how to use it. 

So Kihyun thinks while he is mindlessly washing the tea cups, getting a mental map of the watch, and trying to figure out just how it worked, because maybe he could help Hyungwon deal with everything, because maybe time wasn’t as determined as he had thought.

 

\-- --

  
  


Hyungwon had shown up timely today, Kihyun had been in a bit of a sour mood since the morning when he had gone to his normal merchant only to find out that half their fabric stock had been missing or delayed for the week, so Kihyun was going to have to let a few of his regular customers know that he couldn’t give them their usual fabrics for the week, hoping they would be forgiving. 

Jooheon was due to stop by the shop later in the day to give Kihyun a hand, and he really didn’t want to take it out on the younger, so Kihyun had brewed a whole pot of tea for himself, and was tracing aimless patterns on his workbench with his fingers, when a small breeze ran through his shop, letting Kihyun know that the accompanying soft thump on the wooden floor of the store was Hyungwon, not some random who had gotten past the chimes at the front door.

 

“Hello Hyungwon!” Kihyun calls out, unable to fight the small grin on his face when Hyungwon pokes his head around the corner, pink hair mussed and his face showing evidence that he probably wasn’t too far from a nap when he had skipped. The taller smiles lazily at Kihyun, walking around from behind the shelves to wrap his arms around Kihyun’s shoulders, basically crushing the smaller when he lets his body go loose, putting all his weight on the tiny man, who just laughs, turning his body so that Hyungwon practically slides off him.

“You’re a little shit, you know that right, Won?” Kihyun laughs out, glad that Hyungwon had appeared to improve his mood

 

“There’s nothing little about me” Hyungwon giggles, grabbing one of the stools from the other side of the workbench, pulling it up next to Kihyun and taking a seat, leaning his head in his hands. Kihyun lets out a smirk, a small laugh leaving his lips as his eyebrows raise, looking at Hyungwon cheekily

 

“Oh, is that so, Mister Chae?” Kihyun cackles as he watches Hyungwon turn bright red, his face flushing fully in less than a second, Hyungwon lets out a little squeak before reaching out to hit Kihyun’s arm, just making Kihyun laugh even louder.

 

“Hey that’s not very appropriate to say around the child!” Hyungwon laughs out

 

“What child?” Kihyun furrows his eyebrows, looking around his shop a little

 

“It’s me, I’m a child” Hyungwon laughs, getting a small glare from Kihyun, before he dissolves into quiet giggles not even a second later, the duo taking a solid minute to calm down from their giggle fits, before Kihyun takes a sip of his tea, silently pouring a cup for Hyungwon too, and sliding it across the table.

 

“What were you doing earlier? You look like you woke up from a nap” Kihyun questions his friend, getting a little eye roll from Hyungwon at the memory of whatever he had been doing

 

“Changkyun and I were playing around and he kept tickling me whenever I was trying to nap, but I’d almost gotten a nap in before I skipped” Hyungwon sighs dramatically, as if the prospect of missing out on his nap was literally the worst possible thing that could have happened in the day.

 

“Okay so how about we wake you up a little bit more then?” Kihyun smirks, the plotting look in his eyes was definitely recognisable for Hyungwon now, because Kihyun can see him scanning the shop for possible escapes from the shorter man, who he knows can definitely take him out if he wants too. 

 

Kihyun calmly puts his cup of tea into the middle of the table where he knows it won’t be knocked over, and smiles, a little off putting he hopes, and slowly gets up from his chair, looking at Hyungwon, who gets the message pretty quickly, and launches himself off his stool, sprinting around to the opposite side of the bench. Pretty quickly the two end up chasing each other around the small shop in an unspoken game of tag, Kihyun’s evil grins erupting from his mouth every few seconds, and Hyungwon’s light laughs coming each time he successfully evades his short friend’s outstretched hand.

 

“You can’t hide, you tall bastard” Kihyun laughs as he sees Hyungwon duck behind a shelf with speed, thinking that he had found a way around his friend, but forgetting that Kihyun knows the shop like the back of his hand, and there are plenty of gaps in the shelves that are big enough for Kihyun to squeeze through. Hyungwon spots Kihyun as his head pokes out from between the shelves, laughing maniacally for a second, before reaching into his pocket to grab his stopwatch, grinning widely at his smaller friend

 

“I can’t hide  _ here _ is all” Hyungwon says dramatically, flipping his hair back a little while Kihyun tries to get out of the shelves and reach Hyungwon, who sprints back around the other side of the shelves

 

“Don’t you _ dare _ Hyungwon! That’s so unfair” Kihyun whines, laughing while trying to sprint to Hyungwon, determined to tag him before he leaves, so technically Kihyun would have won

 

“Catch me first Kihyun!” Hyungwon laughs, rolling his body awkwardly to evade Kihyun’s outstretched hand, that nearly meets his middle. The taller boy sprints with a small burst of energy, standing on the opposite end of the shop so that Kihyun can see him, before giving his friend a quick salute

“I win” he laughs, pressing the button on the top of his stopwatch, skipping with a small breeze of warm hair, leaving echoes of his laugh in the small shop for a second, before it falls back into the silence and the sound of Kihyun’s heartbeat in his ear, and the sound of his own breathing much louder than it had been before. Kihyun makes his way back to his stool, throwing back his cup of cool tea like a shot, before laughing to himself

 

“You goddamn cheater, Hyungwon, oh my god”

 

The chimes at the front door ring, and when Kihyun looks up, he sees Jooheon walk in, giving him a quick wave before walking to the back of the store to dump his coat and bag so he can give Kihyun a hand.

 

“You’re a little red there Ki, were you running?” Jooheon asks innocently, laughing a little at the red face of the older

 

“It was just Hyungwon, we were playing tag” Jooheon nods, a knowing smile at the mischief that Hyungwon enjoyed causing, especially when he was in the right mood for it.

 

“Ah okay, did he win?” Jooheon raises his eyebrows, pulling up a seat where Hyungwon had moved the stool to

 

“He skipped on purpose, can’t really call that winning” Kihyun laughs, shaking his head a little, causing Jooheon to laugh as well, smiling at the taller’s antics.

 

\-- --

Kihyun takes Hyungwon along with him to the meadow that Jooheon had shown him earlier in the week, when he skips, tired from whatever he had been doing prior to his skip, with at least 45 minutes left, Kihyun decides that it would be a nice idea to take Hyungwon to rest in the meadow. 

The two reach the meadow before too long, finding a nice tree to lie under, Kihyun choosing to lean against the tree, while Hyungwon lays down, head resting in Kihyun’s lap. Kihyun scans the meadow, the town turning into rolling hills and forest before too long, only a few clouds drifting lazily across the sky with the light breeze that tousles Hyungwon’s pink hair, that was starting to need a touch up, the black of his natural hair taking over the colour. Hyungwon is almost asleep when he shuts his eyes, but he lets himself fall asleep when Kihyun’s start to twist through his hair, massaging his scalp, and playing with the soft cotton candy coloured strands. Kihyun smiles softly as he watches the doll-like boy, legs sprawled out, head resting in Kihyun’s lap, slowly falling asleep, his breaths evening out and his perfectly carved face relaxing, and Kihyun can’t help but to admire the beautiful boy before him. Who wouldn’t in the situation that Kihyun was in? Chae Hyungwon was something of a wonder.

 

The time traveller sleeps, unaware to the gaze of one of his closest friends, memorising every single detail of his face as he sleeps, before he looks out into the rolling hills, enjoying the serenity, and the peace of the two boys with all the time on the watch to themselves.

It was times like these that Kihyun thinks he’s truly lucky to have Chae Hyungwon as his best friend, having a time traveller as a best friend only made it more special when he got to spend calm moments together, not just brief hellos and short catch ups on walks between the market and the store, a soft touch in the middle of the night letting Kihyun know that Hyungwon had arrived, and was staying as long as he needed while he slept.

 

Kihyun lets his hand wander to cup Hyungwon’s cheek while he sleeps, the tall boy unconsciously leaning into the touch, making Kihyun smile. Wondering how long he had before he should wake Hyungwon up from his nap, Kihyun carefully slides the brass watch out of Hyungwon’s pocket and gently opens the cover, with 15 minutes left on the clock, Kihyun lets the boy enjoy his nap, deciding to wake him up with 10 minutes left to get his bearings about him, knowing from experience just how hard it was to wake Hyungwon.

 

The sleepy smile and cuddly Hyungwon was all the reward that Kihyun needed for letting Hyungwon nap, his smile lighting up Kihyun’s day, making it ten times better, and when Hyungwon leans into Kihyun’s shoulder as his fingers wander through Hyungwon’s hair, Kihyun’s a little sad that their moment together has to end, but he’s so glad that he can make sure that Hyungwon is going to be fine when he skips, instead of watching as he disappears, disoriented when he arrives to his other friends.

Hyungwon wakes up most of the way after about 5 minutes, and after a few light slaps from Kihyun, just to make sure he was definitely awake, his eyebrows furrowing, and plump lips pouting when Kihyun tells him he has to leave soon. Kihyun just lets out a little laugh, before slowly getting up from the grassy ground, offering a hand to Hyungwon to help him up, trying his hardest to pull the taller up, even though it throws his own balance off quite a bit.

 

“Alright, you’ll be off then, I guess?” Kihyun smiles, giving Hyungwon a tight hug, and standing back, smiling at his friend

“I’ll see you soon, don’t forget to visit, okay?”

 

Hyungwon gives Kihyun a quick nod, smiling at his friend, thankful for the nap he just got to have, giving him enough energy to finish his day off without any accidents  _ too bad _ .

  
“See you later, Ki, make sure you’re eating well, okay?” Hyungwon lifts his hand to salute Kihyun, who nods in a promise to eat well, but skips, hand at the ready, and glowing from the warmth of the day. Kihyun salutes the spot where Hyungwon had been standing, the small breeze tousling his hair, as he starts his walk back to the town, where he should be working on helping the ahjumma’s next door alter some dresses for their daughters. He can’t help but smile at the majority of the hour spent with his best friend, a small gift of his favourite person in his week, and from what Kihyun had heard, he was one of the lucky ones, he had never had to wait long in between visits. Although, a long wait for Kihyun, was the years he waited to see his aunties, the visits from his childhood friends in the summers, so a month or two waiting for Hyungwon wasn’t unbearable, if anything, it just made him cherish the moments he spent with him even more.

 

\-- --

  
  


Kihyun is wandering through the market, looking at all the goods from the traders who didn’t often come to his town, he looks at the fine silks, and the beautifully carved sculptures, admiring the detail, but his eye is caught when he sees a small brass watch, probably just the same size as Hyungwon’s stopwatch. Kihyun finds himself walking over to the stall and twirling the watch in his hands, feeling the exact similarities in the size and shape of the watch, before the merchant had even spoken to him, Kihyun was already trying to find his money to get the watch, thinking of getting a matching watch that compliments Hyungwon’s own. 

 While Kihyun fishes out some money, a man that couldn’t have been that much older than Kihyun, his slim face and soft eyes smiling at Kihyun, walks up to him, and with a soft, high pitched voice, speaks up

 

“It doesn’t always work, the right person needs to have it, you can have it for a little cheaper if you still want it” Kihyun nods, smiling at the merchant

 

“I’d like it regardless, how much?” Kihyun tries to put on his most polite smile, knowing that it wasn’t really the watch that he wanted, just the connection to his friend, no matter if the watch worked or not, it wouldn’t do for Kihyun, what it did for Hyungwon.

 

“Only give me 25,000 won, okay? I’d normally sell it for 100,000 but I can feel that you’ll need it” Kihyun wasn’t about to protest with the man either, so he hands over the surprisingly small amount, pocketing the watch with its plain brass outside, and takes it back to his shop.

 

Kihyun spends the afternoon meticulously drawing out the pattern that decorates the cover of Hyungwon’s watch, front and back, adding his own details with his pencil, before deciding that he would get exactly what Hyungwon had on his own watch engraved on the plain one he had found. Surely the sentimentality would make both he and Hyungwon feel better on some long nights, so Kihyun takes his sketches of the design and the plain watch to an engraver on the other side of the town, so skilled in the art, that Kihyun’s sure he will do the design justice.

 

A few days later, the engraver returns the watch, taking the money owed, and helps Kihyun out with engraving a small 2017 at the bottom of the back of the watch, under the western letters that Kihyun was too familiar with seeing, but still didn’t understand.

 

Kihyun is spinning the watch through his hands, when Kihyun feels the breeze of Hyungwon’s entrance blow his cropped hair around, the sound of his bright laughter echoing through the shop

 

“Hey Kihyunnie!” Hyungwon practically shouts, before launching himself onto the shorter’s body, burying his face into the smaller’s neck.

“Oh you’ve got the watch, it’s not been long for you then, has it?” Hyungwon smiles, reaching out to run his fingers over the top of the watch that Kihyun holds, identical to the one in his own pocket. The taller man steps back, leading Kihyun from the back of the store, to take a seat at the workbench in the middle of the room, sitting him down, before carefully placing his own watch in front of himself, waving for Kihyun to do the same.

 

“You’ve only been coming for a year, you dork, that’s not that long, but I don’t think I could go without it” Kihyun laughs, wondering why his friend was making him place his new watch out front of him

“You know this watch doesn’t work, right Hyungwon? I just got it engraved to be identical with yours” Hyungwon tilts his head, raising his eyebrows at the new information, before nodding slowly

 

“You know, Kihyun, your sentimental ass has already saved my ass, like, twice” Hyungwon almost laughs, remembering things that Kihyun was yet to see

“Just make sure that you keep this, okay? Because one day I’ll be here, and I won’t have mine, and I will need you to give me that as a gift, you need to give it as a gift, and trust me, you’ll know why when you see me.” Kihyun nods, sliding open the cover of his own watch, the hand still on the 4, stationary and Kihyun assumes it’ll work when they need it the most. 

 

Watching Kihyun pop the cover open, Hyungwon does the same, and the two watch as the hand slides past the 57, showing Hyungwon’s exit almost as soon as he comes

 

“You have to promise me that you will give it to me though, Ki, and you can be dramatic about it, then tell me some stupid shit the time after I come and I need it, alright?” Hyungwon smiles, placing his own watch back into his pocket, before looking into Kihyun’s eyes, obviously dead serious.

 

“I promise, I’ll always have your back Hyungwon” Kihyun nods sharply, smiling at his friend, as he pocket the new watch, keeping it close to him at all times.

“See you later, alligator”

 

Hyungwon tilts his head and lets out a little laugh

“I’m an alligator? That’s a new one, see you later Kihyunnie”

 

And then he’s gone, a soft breeze drifting around the shop.

 

\-- --

 

As Hyungwon said, Kihyun will know when he needs the watch, and he does, he recognises his friend’s face, the absolute relief that he was with Kihyun, but when Hyungwon tells Kihyun that he was stuck for over two hours in the palace, Kihyun just  _ knows _ .

 

He makes sure to be just as dramatic as possible, hiding the watch so that Hyungwon can’t see it as he makes his way back to the workbench after digging through his bag to get the watch that, true to his word, he kept with him always, just to make sure that he had it for  _ The Day, _ he holds the watch behind his back before standing in front of Hyungwon, who has his eyebrows raised

 

“What you got there Kihyunnie?” Hyungwon asks, so Kihyun distracts him for a quick second, making sure to prolong the encounter, before making Hyungwon close his eyes, so that he can press the beautifully carved watch into Hyungwon’s outstretched palms. Kihyun is proud of himself for all of half a second, then he looks at Hyungwon, and he’s about to cry, and he absolutely panics, rushing forward to pull Hyungwon into his chest.

 

“Oh my god, don’t cry” Hyungwon lets out a small laugh

“If it’s that awful I can take it back, I just saw it and thought of your watch, so I got it engraved for you!” Hyungwon laughs a little more, before pulling back from Kihyun’s chest, a cheek-splitting grin decorating his face, a look that suits his porcelain features, probably Kihyun’s favourite thing to see.

 

“No Kihyun, it’s perfect, don’t worry, it’s absolutely perfect” And Kihyun is so glad, he knew that it would be fine, but Hyungwon’s tears really threw him off for a second there, and it’s not like he  _ could _ return it, he just hoped that it would make Hyungwon feel better in the moment, because there was no way he would ever get rid of a connection that important.

Hyungwon pops open the cover of the watch, and the two watch as the hand, previously stuck on the 4, slides past the 35 at its usual pace. Kihyun starts to get more ideas to try with the new watch, though, when he remembers that there’s force skipping, and the knob definitely turns, he had been fiddling with it while the watch wasn’t working, or attached to Hyungwon. Maybe it did something?

Kihyun’s thoughts are cut short when Hyungwon wraps his arms around his waist, effectively cutting off all air supply, and winding Kihyun, so he reaches his hand up into the mostly pink locks, and pats Hyungwon’s head, whispering to his friend

 

“I can’t breathe, Hyungwon” Luckily Hyungwon hears Kihyun, because he lets go straight away, and Kihyun practically wheezes when he inhales, but he doesn’t mind as much, when Hyungwon smiles like the sun

 

“Thank you, so, so much Kihyun, it means the world to me” 

 

Kihyun’s thoughts about the watch come back at Hyungwon’s glee, and he gives Hyungwon his iconic ‘I have an idea and it might be dangerous’ look, planning to see if he can test something with the knob on the top of the watch that made Hyungwon skip

 

“Hey do you wanna see if something works?” He suggests, hoping he doesn’t seem to diabolical, he does a quick once over of the room, spotting a ball of fabric scraps that he had forgotten to clean up earlier, and for once he’s thankful for it, and when Hyungwon nods, Kihyun tries his hardest to avoid grinning evilly.

 

“Uh, I guess? What is it?” Kihyun hopes that his theory will be right, because if it is, that would be absolutely amazing, and would explain a few tricks that Hyungwon had played on him in the past, or, this Hyungwon’s future

 

“Turn the knob at the top, backwards” Kihyun walks over to the ball of scraps, taking them up in his hand as he looks at Hyungwon

“On the count of three, okay?” When Hyungwon brings his hand up to the top of the watch, ready to turn it, and nods, Kihyun starts his count, and gets ready to pelt the scraps at Hyungwon, and if it doesn’t work, oh well, Hyungwon gets hit with some scraps, no big deal

 

“One”

 

“Two” Before he can launch the ball of scraps, Hyungwon waves his hands at Kihyun, signalling for him to stop, a grin on his face that definitely had not been there beforehand

 

“Hey, it worked, Kihyunnie, it worked?” Hyungwon looks up, a few small giggles leaving his lips.

 

Sometimes Kihyun’s mischief paid off though, because Hyungwon definitely used that trick a couple of times in the future. The two play around in the shop, before Kihyun remembers that one time Hyungwon had told him that Changkyun had been suffering from his time travel mishaps, and given the whole ‘being trapped somewhere for two hours’ deal, it was probably this skip where he had had the roughest time, so he stops playing around, and rests his hands on Hyungwon’s shoulders

 

“Hyungwon, go and check up on Changkyun, okay? I’ll see you soon, alright?” As soon as the words leave Kihyun’s mouth, Hyungwon leaves, and Kihyun is glad to see him go, for once, so he grabs the scraps off his table, before putting them in their allocated basket near his back door. Kihyun hums a foreign tune he’d heard from Hyungwon a few times, as he wanders around the shop, tidying up his shelves, and returning everything to its rightful place, before taking a seat at his workbench, the absence of the watch now something foreign to Kihyun, but he’s glad it’s back with its original owner.

 

\-- --

  
  


Kihyun is laying on his bedroom floor, starfished out on the cold floorboards, when Hyungwon appears, cross legged on the floor, arms waving wildly as he explains something with his eyes shut, invested in the story

 

“And then there’s like these three men in suits and they chase the two time travellers” Hyungwon gestures wildly with his hands, one shaped like a gun, the other swinging at his side as if he is running, and Kihyun laughs at his friend’s dramatic storytelling

 

“Ah, is that so? Really? The men chase the time travellers?” Kihyun laughs out, Hyungwon stopping his story, and opening his eyes to see Kihyun laying on the floor, trying to make his back feel a little better from his long day of walking, not even a second later, Hyungwon turns bright red, his ears giving away his blush as he hides his face behind his hands, shoulders shaking with his laughter

 

“Look, Jooheon  _ really  _ was enjoying the story, you asshole” Hyungwon glares at Kihyun through his fingers

“I even had Shownu invested! I mean, come on! You know how hard it is to get him to pay attention to a story!” Kihyun laughs, nodding at the stories he had heard about Shownu in the past

 

“I’m sure he enjoys them, you know he’s just not the most expressive guy” Hyungwon sighs, laughing a little before nodding at Kihyun

 

“Yeah, you’re right, he was probably invested in the story I told him yesterday about Minhyuk complaining that the blue hanbok didn’t suit him nearly as much as the red one did” Hyungwon laughs a little louder, filling the room with the sunshine that is his laughter, before he uncrosses his legs, to join Kihyun, starfished on the floor.

  
“I’m just going to lay here, alright?” Kihyun hums in response, the two laying down in silence, and Kihyun’s pretty sure that either Hyungwon has fallen asleep, or he’s staring at the ceiling, so Kihyun turns his head to check up on Hyungwon, but the soft breeze of his swift exit is what Kihyun sees, an empty space in Hyungwon’s wake. Kihyun turns his head back to staring at the ceiling, and lets himself drift off, just as he’s still convinced that Hyungwon had done right before he left, comfortable in the aura that remains when Hyungwon leaves, the sense of home left in the air.

 

\-- --

  
  


The two sit under the tree, in the shade from the sun, a few rolls and a small container of rice, and a vegetable curry sit before the boys, cross legged and laughing, their banter lasting the better part of half an hour, before they tuck into the meal.

 

“How long have you got to eat, Won-ah?” Kihyun asks, before stuffing his cheeks with rice, raising his eyebrows at his friend, who grabs his watch from his pocket, checking the time before placing the intricately carved brass piece back into his pocket.

 

“Half an hour, we’ll finish this before then, surely, if we don’t just chat the whole time” Hyungwon says, before copying Kihyun’s actions, stuffing his face with the vegetable curry and rice.

 

All of Hyungwon’s plans to not talk while eating are often ruined, though, when he remembers something particularly amusing about Minhyuk flirting with Hyunwoo, who had literally no ideas of his advances for the better part of a few years now, and finally giving in, Minhyuk had sat him down and told him straight up, only to get a very blank faced Hyunwoo in return. 

Kihyun and Hyungwon do end up finishing their meal though, and just in time, because Hyungwon checks his clock with only a minute left before he leaves

 

“Thanks for the meal, I’ll be seeing you later!” Hyungwon smiles, but right before he skips, he takes in a big breath, giving half of his sneeze in Kihyun’s time, making a weird sound, and probably scaring whoever got to see him next. The thought makes Kihyun giggle as he relaxes under the tree, slowly packing the aftermath of their meal into the middle of the blanket, so he can cart it back home when he feels like moving

 

“See ya later Chae Hyungwon, you’re gonna scare the shit out of whoever you just greeted” Kihyun laughs, before pushing himself up off the ground

 

(The receiver of the other end of the sneeze, was 2017 Jooheon, once again, who drops his sandwich on the counter, and spends the next 20 minutes whining that having Hyungwon around was bad for his sandwiches, and his heart, much to Hyungwon’s utter amusement)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I hope that you enjoyed!  
> This will always remain my favourite timeline and universe to work with, so I'm glad that a lot of you really enjoy it!   
> I'm on a real time travel kick atm so I'll be giving you that Good Time Travel Shit later on next month!
> 
> I hope you have a good morning, evening, afternoon, where ever you are! And I hope you have a good week ahead of you!
> 
> Please let me know how this fic made you feel, and come and scream at me on twitter @renjunsrey!


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